Archive for November, 2012

Farish Jenkins 1940-2012

Tuesday, November 13th, 2012

It is with great sadness that we have to report that Farish Jenkins passed away on November 11, 2012 after waging a strong fight against cancer.

When the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology awarded him the Romer-Simpson Medal in 2009, Farish shared his own memories and insights about his career: 2009 Romer-Simpson Medal Recipient

Others have already said it better than I ever could, but Farish Jenkins will be greatly missed.

Read the notes on the PLoS blog Tooth and Claw and from the Nature newsblog to get a sense of Farish Jenkins. The November 14 Boston Globe obituary sums up Farish Jenkins well.

Some of the words used to describe Farish: caring, polite, true gentleman, charismatic, adventurer, storyteller, rare, brilliant, patient. He was all of these things, but more than anything, Farish was an anchor. He provided the reference and research staff in the Ernst Mayr Library with many intriguing and complicated searches for just the right information. He spent time explaining why he needed something specific. He respected the abilities of the staff in the library and museum. He always thanked us for our work on his behalf, no matter how small our contribution. He was funny and a joy to have around. He was an excellent and popular teacher–students could relate to him easily. He could launch a formidable argument–so it was important to be sure of your facts and clear in your reasoning. Farish always did his homework and expected that you would too. Farish never failed to acknowledge good work done by others. He took delight in showing newcomers the “secrets” of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, whether that meant little-known paths through the building or unexpected stories about past inhabitants or current specimens housed in the Museum. The halls of the MCZ will be quieter and less interesting without Farish around.

Farish Jenkins & Jim McCarthy, 1984. From the Archives of the MCZ in the Ernst Mayr Library.

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New books list, November 7, 2012

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

Behavioural responses to a changing world : mechanisms and consequences.
Edited by Ulrika Candolin, Bob B.M. Wong. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012. HOLLIS# 013395314
QL751.B348 2012

Biometrical genetics : analysis of quanitative variation.
By Darbeshwar Roy. Oxford, U.K. : Alpha Science International, c2012. HOLLIS# 013395328
QH452.7.R69 2012

Bryozoan studies 2010.
Andrej Ernst, Priska Schäfer, Joachim Scholz, editors. Berlin ; New York : Springer, 2012. HOLLIS# 013401916
QL396.I58 2010

Capybara : biology, use and conservation of a valuable neotropical species.
José Roberto Moreira … [et al.], editors. New York : Springer, [2012], c2013. HOLLIS# 013396786
QL737.R662 C37 2012

Caribou herds of northwest Alaska, 1850-2000.
By Ernest S. Burch Jr. ; edited by Igor Krupnik and Jim Dau. Fairbanks : University of Alaska Press, c2012. HOLLIS# 013396789
QL737.U55 B823 2012

The centre cannot hold.
By David Gulden ; foreword by Susan Minot. 1st ed. New York : Glitterati Inc., 2012. HOLLIS# 013396494
TR729.W54 G85 2012

Chameleons of Southern Africa.
By Krystal Trolley & Marius Burger. Cape Town : Struik ; London : New Holland [distributor], 2007. HOLLIS# 013396792
QL666.L23 T65 2007

Chickens : physiology, diseases and farming practices.
Iresha Kapur and Abdullah Mehra, editors. Hauppauge, N.Y. : Nova Science Publishers, c2012. HOLLIS# 013396797
SF768.2.P6 C44 2012

Comparative ocean governance : place-based protections in an era of climate change.
By Robin Kindis Craig. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA, USA : Edward Elgar, [2012]. HOLLIS# 013397332
K3485.C73 2012

Eels : physiology, habitat, and conservation.
Nakashima Sachiko and Michiyo Fujimoto, editors. Hauppauge, N.Y. : Nova Science Publisher’s, 2012. HOLLIS# 013396798
QL637.9.A5 E46 2012

The elements of continuum biomechanics.
By Marcelo Epstein. Chichester, West Sussex ; Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, 2012. HOLLIS# 013397387
QH513.E77 2012

Energetic food webs : an analysis of real and model ecosystems.
By John C. Moore, Peter C. De Ruiter. 1st ed. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012. HOLLIS# 013397393
QH541.15.F66 M66 2012

Espécies ameaçadas de extinção e áreas críticas para a biodiversidade no Pará.
Ana Luisa Kerti Mangabeira Albernaz, Teresa Cristina Sauer Avila-Pires, organizadoras. Belém : Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi : Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia :Conservation International, 2009. HOLLIS# 013313757
QH117.E77 2009

Estuaries : classification, ecology, and human impacts.
Stephen J. Jordan, editor. Hauppauge, N.Y. : Nova Science Publishers, c2012. HOLLIS# 013396800
QH541.5.E8 E845 2012

The forgotten pollinators.
By Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan ; with a foreword by Edward O. Wilson ; illustrations by Paul Mirocha. Washington, D.C. : Island Press [for] Shearwater Books, c1996. HOLLIS# 006755198
QK926.B835 1996

Geometric methods in modern biomechanics.
By Tijana T. Ivancevic, Vladimir G. Ivancevic, and Bojan Jovanovic. New York : Nova Science Publishers, c2012. HOLLIS# 013396799
QH513.I93 2012

Habitats and ecological communities of Indiana : presettlement to present.
Edited by John O. Whitaker, Jr. and Charles J. Amlaner, Jr. ; Marion T. Jackson, George R. Parker, and Peter E. Scott, associate editors. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2012. HOLLIS# 013397478
QH76.5.I6 H33 2012

Kraujo Lašo paslaptys : Vyto Antano Tamošiūno bibliografijos rodyklė.
[By] Sudarė Birutė Railienė. Vilnius ; Lietuvos mokslų akad. Vrublevskių bibl., 2012. HOLLIS# 013367184
QH320.L47 R24 2012

The mammalian jaw : a mechanical analysis.
By Walter Stalker Greaves. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 2012, ©2012. HOLLIS# 013397539
QL739.G74 2012

Marshes : ecology, management and conservation.
Demarco C. Abreu and Savannah L. de Borbón, editors. New York : Nova Science Publishers, c2012. HOLLIS# 013396802
QH541.5.M3 M37 2012

Minerali a Torino : le collezioni del Museo di Mineralogia dell’Università e del Museo Regionale de Scienze Naturali di Torino.
Emanuele Costa, Lorenzo Mariano Gallo. Torino : Museo regionale di scienze naturali, 2010. HOLLIS# 013374133
QE386.I72 C67 2010

New Zealand inventory of biodiversity. Volume 3: Kingdoms.
Christchurch, N.Z. :Canterbury University Press,2009- . HOLLIS# 012351401
QH197.5.N49 2009 v. 3

Physiological adaptations for breeding in birds.
By Tony D. Williams. Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2012. HOLLIS# 013397550
QL698.2.W45 2012

Plant galls.
By Margaret Redfern. London : Collins, 2011. HOLLIS# 013397557
SB767.R34 2011

Quantitative ecotoxicology.
By Michael C. Newman. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, c2013. HOLLIS# 013398123
QH545.A1 N493 2013

Saved in time : the fight to establish Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado.
By Estella B. Leopold and Herbert W. Meyer. Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2012. HOLLIS# 013396516
QE747.C6 L46 2012

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Field Notes and Cockroaches

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

Field Notes from the Ernst Mayr Library collection.

Last week there were a couple of events in the Ernst Mayr Library. On Thursday we were visited by about a dozen attendees from the “Take Note” conference held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. This conference brought together scholars from a variety of disciplines to explore the role of note-taking in different disciplines. The conference also launched a virtual exhibition entitled “An Exploration of Note-Taking in Harvard University Collections“. There was also discussion and review of emerging digital annotation tools.

The students and scholars who visited the Ernst Mayr Library were treated to a lecture and note-taking session organized by Michael Canfield. Additionally they viewed biologists’ field notes from the 19th and early 20th century. The display included one of John James Audubon’s notebooks–mostly text, field notes from Louis Agassiz coupled with illustrations by his travelling artist, Jacques Burkhardt, a psychiatrist’s bird watching lists,sketches and notes along with field notes and analytic compilations from William Brewster, Curator at the MCZ from 1885 to 1902. Connie Rinaldo gave a brief presentation about the Biodiversity Heritage Library partner IMLS grant Connecting Content: A Collaboration to Link Field Notes to Specimens and Published Literature to which the Ernst Mayr Library is contributing digitzed versions of Brewster’s field notes, diaries, photographs and correspondence along with MCZ specimen images from Brewster’s collection of birds from Cambridge, MA.

Pages from Audubon’s field notes (1840-1842)

Agassiz’s notes on Brazilian Fish, 1865 or 1866 along with Burkhardt illustration.

So what about the cockroaches? The library pets, hissing cockroaches, have new and more spacious digs so we thought it was a great time to show them off along with some books from the amazing collections of the Ernst Mayr Library. Since the field notes were already on display, we added some books with cockroach images and announced a Friday afternoon “flash” exhibit complete with snacks. We know some folks were unable to attend and were disappointed, so feel free to ask for a tour, either private or for your lab. Check with Connie Rinaldo, Dana Fisher or Mary Sears.

Checking out the Hissing Cockroaches.

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